Drivers, parking and entitlement

Drivers are, of course, the most entitled class of road users out there. Like the bullies they are, they shout and scream about others not ‘paying their way’ and ‘causing danger’, ignoring the massive costs we are all forced to pay to support their choices – the dollar cost of the roads they drive on, the environmental costs of the fuel they burn and the ultimate cost of the human lives they destroy – thousands of people killed every year in Australia by dangerous and negligent drivers.

Cars bring out the worst in us. I drive sometimes; we have a family car. And I have to work hard to resist its insidious effects. Cut off from those around you, isolated from society and from the consequences of your choices we all too easily become selfish and thoughtless.

There are so many examples of this selfish behaviour we have for the most part stopped noticing it – we accept the dominance of the motor car on our lives without a second thought.

But having recently come across a series of examples of swingeing entitlement in action, I was moved to write about it. And it is parking. Specifically, parking on areas of public land reserved for pedestrians (and sometimes cyclists).

Take this spot, for example:

This spot is directly in front of a car park. It is alongside a parking lane on the road. There is always parking available within 200m of this spot. Always. Yet it seems completely blocking this SUP is considered perfectly OK by a range of drivers.

Here’s another common example:

A car that could easily and legally fit in the parking lane (let’s not get into the fact that this is also a bike lane, but one that allows parking) instead is driven up onto an already narrow pavement, pretty much blocking it.

Yes, workmen have to get to their worksite, but absolutely and completely blocking a path, forcing path users into a road when it would be perfectly possible to park in the traffic lane?

I don’t know what the solution is to this type of behaviour. It is so ingrained that we have almost stopped noticing it. Perhaps we could phase out cars, say in the next ten years? Maybe then we could regain our humanity and compassion.

Honestly, I can’t wait for self driving cars. If everyone had one then there’d be no bad behaviour and less traffic jams to boot. But it looks a long long way off unfortunately, there’s so many issues at the moment (operational and security).